Grow With Us

Getting in Place to See God Clearly

Imagine:

You travel down the road to Damascus. The sun hangs high and the heat seems to surround you and your handful of soldiers. The only sound you hear in this isolated valley is your horse's hoofs clipping along steady and even.

Your goal is set and your passion is full: you will thresh the followers of this false Messiah from the face of the earth. These infidels would regret proclaiming their new covenant and the deity of the one they call Master. Suddenly, in the middle of the desert, a bright light shines out forcing you from your steed. The light, more luminescent than a thousand suns, forces you to plunge your face into your arms as you cower in the burning sand. You kneel there humbled and afraid in the dust, and suddenly you hear a voice that cuts like a strong wind:

"Saul, Saul why persecutest thou me."

Vision For Our Relationship With God

Saul was not what we think of as the typical candidate for receiving a vision from God. Most people who received vision from God up until Saul were devout followers of God and His ways. They were prophets, good kings and other holy men and women of God. They were in alignment with His plan and purpose and with the advent of the New Covenant, Saul was clearly against God's current plan and purpose. A Pharisees and servant of the Temple in Jerusalem, Saul worked tirelessly to fight against, capture and even kill the followers of Christ. So how can one so out of position in relationship with God be the subject of a devotion on being in position to hear from God? It's because, despite his flawed perspective and purpose, Saul was in perfect position to receive the exact word that God gave to Him.

While he was someone who railed against the early church, Saul was also completely sold out to serving God no matter what that meant. He was passionate and submitted to what he thought was God's will. Saul had searched the Old Testament scriptures, kept the Sabbath, and honored the holy days (Philippans 3:3-7). Having that kind of commitment to pursuing God provided Saul with the opportunity God was about to give him. Let's read his interaction with God:

And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. (Acts 9:5-6).

Notice the bold and enlarged text there. When God revealed himself to be Jesus, Saul didn't argue. He simply asked what he should do to get into proper alignment. This is a position of submission. Saul may have been a vicious man, but his commitment to submit to the One True God went beyond any preconceived notion or personal alignment he had. That is why God knew he could cast vision over Saul because he knew the true heart of Saul was not in malicious acts. It was in serving what he thought was God's will.

A lot of us are going about doing what we think is God's will for our lives. However, what if God chose to direct us in a way that changed our path and actions?* Would we submit to the will of the Lord and realign our hearts to His true purpose? If we have a heart like Saul, even if we are as out of perspective as he was, we can still find ourselves in a position to receive God's vision for us. We just have to submit.

*Note: God will never direct you away from the doctrine found in His Word. If the voice you are hearing doesn't align with the scriptures, it's not from God.

Three Ways To Start Submitting

We submit by reading the Word of God, praying and fasting all with the mindset and heart to submit to what God says to us. When we read the Bible, it will be with a purpose to align ourselves with God's Word rather than just to find an answer to a problem or an inspirational thought for the day. When we pray to God, it will be for direction in how we can serve God more deeply and relate to Him more closely rather than just bringing our needs and problems before Him. When we fast, it will be to honor God and bow ourselves in submitted service rather than just for the hope of a great revelation or the answer to a big situation. Notice, these three are not about abandoning the idea of addressing God for our needs, solutions or inspiration. They are simply refocusing them to include our willingness to submit. When we include this in our regular manner of relating to God, we will find ourselves in the perfect position to receive a vision.

Vision to Pursue God's Will

There are also people out there who don't have a true relationship with God or really any kind of relationship with Him. However, they have a good heart that will submit to God when He reveals Himself. If we follow the path of the other man attached to Saul's conversion story, we will be in position to help those people just as he helped Saul.

And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. (Acts 9:10)

Ananias first response when God addressed him was "Behold, I am here, Lord." The term "behold" used by Ananias intimated a state of readiness. This was a man prepared to do the will of God. He was basically waiting on God to talk to him and send him wherever God wanted him to go. He was submitted. God knew Ananias would do His will before He spoke to him because He new the position of Ananias. We will talk about the conversation that Ananias had with God next week, but we must understand before God told Ananias what to do, Ananias was already ready to do God's will. Nothing else is written about Ananias, but the one recorded action of his caused vast ripples in the history of the early church. Without an Ananias in position, we wouldn't have gotten a Paul who would set fire to the world and spread the gospel.

Are we in a position of readiness when God calls us to a greater purpose? We can be the spark that starts a fire in our communities and regions. We just have to position ourselves into a state of willingness and submission to pursue God's will. As mentioned before, this positioning is done through reading God's Word, praying and fasting with the right focus: a focus of submission and readiness in the Spirit. When we do this, the voice of God will speak into our lives. How it happens doesn't matter. What matters is that we receive it when He does speak, but that is the subject of next week's lesson.

We hope you are enjoying our Vision series so far. Our next lesson won't be out until next Tuesday, but you can get more content in the meantime by signing up for our Access Page. It's FREE and you'll get a lot of great content centered around this topic along with the opportunity to talk back and help shape our conversation. Click here to get Access Today.

Today, we will dive deeper into the stories of Saul and Ananias and see how others were in position to help with their vision and what that means for us. Expect to see this on our ACCESS page in a couple of hours.

From birth to death, the journey of life presents opportunities for each of us. We can set ourselves to seek Him and His will or we can set goals for ourselves in the reasoning of our humanity. I have found that only by casting all my plans into His hands and asking for His guidance and thoughts can I avoid the pain of regret at making wrong choices. When our love and desire to obey His plans become the focus of our life, we are in a position to see visions, dream dreams and see His desires become our life goals. So thankful for these lessons that confirm the Truth of His Word.

Author

Chris Farris is the author of The Way, a manual detailing how to implement the Beatitudes into your life. He review events and other media and offers other insights into writing and working for the Kingdom of God.